Viewpoint: Common Core, snake oil or salvation?

Millburn has a century-old legacy of providing its residents with a high-performing, superior school district. It's why most of us moved here. Thanks largely to Millburn's schools and their caretakers, our graduates routinely achieve success in their advanced studies and on their career pathways. So, why is there the need to place our children into statewide "peer groups" based upon the results of statewide testing? School reform?

Data systems analysts have developed algorithms and rubrics seeking to accurately measure student progress, redirect curriculum and force educators to quantify almost everything happening within the walls of our schools. Rivers of data are flowing to hard drives in local administrative offices as well as the cubicles of over 900 Department of Education employees. Local control, something Millburn has always cherished, is eroding.

Creative and challenging liberal arts curricula will be undermined in the face of a teaching-to-the-test mentality in a one-size-fits-all world. Particularly in lower-achieving districts, standardized tests are sold with all the ingenuity of a Madison Avenue ad campaign. Unwary parents are tranquilized. Sadly, reforms through testing will not redress societal ills which are at the bottom of New Jersey's educational performance gaps.

The Gates Foundation has been a prominent supporter of the Common Core State Standards for Student Learning. It says, "The standards offer a roadmap of clear expectations for college readiness, deepening what students need to know at each stage of their schooling. We're working with our partners to help these standards become part of the fabric of schools around the country...." Does Millburn need Gates' help?

Millburn is proud of its educators' humanistic values, deep command of subject content and sound background in classroom teaching. Today, your child's teacher must factor into his or her plans some of the following mandates: PARCC Readiness Assessment, NJ ASK (Grades 3,4,5-8), NJ Standards Clarification Project Phase I, Language Arts Literacy, Math, High School Assessment Transition to the Common Core State Standards, Special Review Assessment, HSPA, High School Science Assessment, Algebra I/II Standards, NJ Biology Competency Test, and Alternate Proficiency Assessment. Mix into this compote, specific and measureable Student Growth Objectives, Student Growth Percentiles and a Professional Development Plan or Corrective Action Plan. Oops, I almost omitted PSAT and SAT preparation classes. By the way, how would they quantify student self-actualization and non-cognitive skills?

Recently, a very few members of the State Assembly proposed bills to require districts to provide information on the time taken from instruction, cost of tests and purpose of the tests. By the way, is it shocking that the major testing companies, including privately owned, multinational Educational Testing Services, employ powerful lobbyists, generously fatten political coffers and are cloaked in fiscal secrecy while earning billions annually on the backs of our children?

Former Commissioner Cerf and his staff would lead us to believe that teacher performance is tethered to student performance. It's that simple to them. They cannot comprehend the level of genius it takes our great teachers to deliver daily, creative, motivational lessons and achieve goals of higher level thinking skills in all subjects, at all grade levels - in Millburn and other districts around the State.

In 2010, Gov. Christie puffed, "I am thankful that Chris Cerf is bringing to New Jersey his passion for education and experienced leadership to help enact the bold and innovative education measures we need to finally bring a quality education to every child in our state...as we address the civil rights issue of our time." Cerf recently quit to join a Rupert Murdoch-owned educational software company. He leaves a dubious legacy and serious collateral damage from his testing blitz.

Some local leaders contend that testing is just a minor inconvenience. The reality in the trenches is that the hours of teacher and student stress, and time devoted to designing curricular adjustments, attending training sessions, pre-testing, testing, post-testing, proctoring, SGOs and summative evaluations is incalculable. I ask our Board of Education to find a way for districts to opt out of this tsunami of mandated state testing and oversight. Every minute of classroom instruction is sacred.

I'm hoping our local curriculum still includes a reading of Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh." The central character, Hickey, leads us to consider whether he was selling snake oil or salvation. Which will it be?

Myrtle Avenue resident Arthur Fredman is retired as teacher, coach, administrator, President of the Essex County Board of Education, University Supervisor, Teacher Performance Center at Kean University. He is married to Judith Fredman who taught in every district school, established the District Foreign Language in the Elementary School Program in 1998, and won the FLES Best Foreign Language Teacher in New Jersey Award in 2006.